Local delights of Boroughbridge

My friend Mel had bought her first van, so we went for a practise up the road at Boroughbridge. All went without incident, if you don't count me backing in to the fence as I parked up! (Awks)

The next day we did the Aldborough loop walk, and stopped in at the Ship for a beer. A real find was the church across the road - how had I never been there before? Packed with interest - see St Andrew's.

That evening it was down to the Tat on the Tutt (used to be the 3 horseshoes) by the bridge in the village. Slightly stodgy menu and no veggie option as far as I could see. But a nice couple of beers and good company!

Gate to Southwell annual visit

Amazed to find it is 6 years since I first attended this festival. This was my 3rd year as a steward and my shifts were such I only really missed seeing Manran, but they were so flipping loud that may have been a blessing. 'I SAID IT MAY HAVE BEEN A BLESSING, DEAR...'

Stand-outs for me were Lizzie No (fantastic!), Rye Sisters, Slack Bird (Finnish weirdness), Rebecca Hearn, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, The Fugitives, Cider with Molly (should have seen The Haar really). Next comes Blue Rose Code, Campbell/Jensen and Daoiri Farrell trio. Kathryn Tickell and Rhiannon Giddens were fantastic musicians but somehow didn't get me very excited.

At some point on one day I wore: sandals, shorts, trainers, trousers, t-shirt, vest, fleece, sun hat, rain poncho, factor 50 sun cream, woolly hat, gloves, sunglasses. A typical English summer then. Another total rain-lashing but no thunder/lightning, and I still ended up with a pink nose.

Great to meet up with Wendy and Steve, who I'd met for the first time at Beardy last month.

Red sky at night was a shepherd's big fat fib in our case.

Beardy trimmed - back to the garage we go.

Halfway to Beardy Folk, a warning light came on the dashboard and refused to go out. After a quick Google I found it was a 'transmission problem' and could be one of a number of things. As no-one seemed to be screaming 'Don't Drive!' I carried on to Hopton Court.

The festival was great fun, 9 of us altogether, and a biblical thunderstorm on Friday night, just to up the mud levels.

I left a day early, on Sunday afternoon, so I could get the van back in to the garage on Monday for a check up*. 

*Update - after a bit of to and fro, it was found to be a fuel pressure valve, which meant not enough fuel was being delivered and the engine could have cut out at heavy loads. Of course the valve was BEHIND the engine, so hard to get to, but in the end only 2 hours labour plus parts came to £270 ish.